Kids to Afrika

Deborah Harley is Program Director for Kids to Afrika. (Read more about the program on the Kids to Akrika website.) Recently, Ms. Harley has been working with Xavier to enhance the program in a number of different ways.

Summer 2002

On Saturday June 15th and June 22nd KTA02 scholars held their first post-production workshops to compile the first-ever student generated PowerPoint presentation. The objective of this third phase of KTA programming is to insure that the community gains greater awareness of our cultural and academic enrichment program.

On Monday July 29th and Wednesday July 31st the production room of CAT was used to compress photo images and transition slides into their final format. Now, thanks to the assistance of Bart, Gayna, Janice and Elizabeth, KTA02 scholars are ready to take their newfound multimedia presentation skills out to the Greater New Orleans community!

Ms. Harley also kept busy during the summer working on a design document for a new version of the Kids to Afrika website, as a part of the Center's Rich Media Projects initiative.

Spring 2002

Ms. Harley met with Center staff and two Xavier faculty members to plan a series of three workshops for the 2002 student delegation who will be doing field-study in South Africa in May. A goal of the project is to build students' computer literacy skills, and strengthen their communication and presentation skills. To that end, and as a part of the pre-trip activities, students will be expected to focus on an aspect of South African geography, politics, culture or a contemporary issue for investigation prior to the trip. During the trip they will gather information and upon returning home, they will make presentations to classmates, parents and community groups.

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Our first encounter on February 16th was spent getting acquainted with the kids - Janay, Keisha, Jonathan, Megan, Imani and Brittanie. We also spent time exploring information about South Africa on the World Wide Web. Ed Huffman, Xavier's Institutional Technology Specialist, and Mrs. Elizabeth Rhodes, the Center's School/University Liaison assessed the students' searching abilities with an Internet Search Activity [PDF, 53 Kb], and shared a worksheet with the students on "Internet Search Tips" [PDF, 93 Kb], including a list of links that students could use to begin searching.

The kids- Brittanie, Chelsea, Kyra, Stephanie, Tarell, Imani, and Janay met with Dr. Pamela Waldren Moore, a political scientist at Xavier, Dr. Kathyrn Barett-Gaines, a historian also at Xavier, and Elizabeth Rhodes of the Center staff on the 9th of March to talk about South Africa. The following buzz words spurred an interesting conversation: Soweto, freedom struggle, goldmines, diamonds, Afrikaaners, Miriam Makeba, Zulu, Khosa, Brenda Fosse, elections, United Nations. A snippet from the movie "Cry Freedom" also stirred quite a few responses from students. It took a little prying, but faculty soon discovered that students were very aware of issues related to South Africa.

After the trip in May, Ms. Harley and the kids will document the trip and share the highlights via a newly designed website.